Happy 10th Birthday

My little girl is now officially in double digits.  Ten years old.  Sigh.

I love this little girl with all my heart.

She is such a good daughter.  She is kind-hearted, sweet-spirited, obedient, loving, disciplined, and many more wonderful traits as well.  I could say a million good things about her.  And of course, she definitely has a few short-comings too (as well all do!) but I can honestly say that she is a true joy to me.

This year her birthday was a hodge-podge of various celebrations.  On her actual birthday, we were at a ball game so we didn't celebrate too much that day.  The weekend after her birthday we were in Oklahoma City for another activity so we celebrated with Nana and Grandpa.  And then we also had another celebration later with Mimi and Papa.  But I think the highlight for her was a party that she had with her friends.  Her friend Olivia Flynt as well as some of Olivia's friends, started a ministry called "Pillow Pals".  They sell pillows for $5.00 and then you get a pillow and they donate pillows to the Laura Dester Shelter for Children.  They also do parties and so Maddie decided to have that kind of party.  She chose all the material and Olivia and Jill purchased it all and brought it to the party.  Then the girls made pillows.  They each got to take one home and then they made a huge volume to donate.  I think everybody had a great time and I was reminded again about what a sweet group of friends that Maddie has been blessed with!

Here are some pictures from our various celebrations:

 The birthday girl

 The cake (was supposed to be more pink and less red, but oh well!)

 Daddy and his little girl

 Hard at work

 Taking a break to smile

 Pretending to sleep on all the pillows

 The girls and all their pillows

Make a wish

Yummy birthday donuts

Easter 2014

As always, we had a great Easter holiday.  Here are some pictures from our celebration.

Happy Birthday to Mason

Cannot believe that it is possible.  How can this little cutie already be three years old?

Mason had a very good and busy birthday.  Well, it was busy for me at least!  We had a full day of activities before his party so by the time we celebrated, I was 100% worn out.  But he didn't seem to know the difference and had a great time opening presents and eating cake with his family.

This little boy is amazing.  He is the sweetest little guy and frequently climbs into my lap and says "I love you mom" and of course that melts my heart every time.  He still loves to watch tv more than any kid ever, but he also loves to play with hot wheels (or warm cars as he sometimes calls them!).  He also really, really loves to play in big brother's room whenever he can get away with it.  He also loves to be outside playing.  And he loves to play board games - which fits right in with the rest of us because we all enjoy games as well.  We are working on potty training.  He surprised me and got the pee-pee part right away but the other part is proving to be a big challenge.  I know he will get it though.  It is hard for me to watch all of my kids grow up but it is the hardest watching my baby.  I just want to keep him little.  But I am also greatly enjoying seeing his sweet little personality develop and he just makes me happy.

Happy 3rd birthday, sweet Mason!

Watch Dog

Today Mark was the "Watch Dog" at Micah's school.  Fun day for him!

Spring Break

This year for Spring Break we decided to take a little getaway to Dallas.  Mason is at an age where he is much easier to travel with so it makes it so much easier to go do fun stuff.

We packed in a whole lot of stuff in just 2 days and were very busy but we had a great time.  Here are some pictures from our trip.

The very first In-n-Out burger for this burger lover 

Lego Discover Center 

Playing at the park 

 4-D Movie

4-D Movie 

Perot Museum 

First time time ice-skating 

Tough for Micah but he tried hard 

It came pretty easy for Maddie!

We had a really fun time in Dallas.  We visited the Lego Discovery Center, Perot Museum, the Galleria for ice skating, several parks, the outlet mall, and had dinner with Uncle Jimmy.  Not a very restful way to spend spring beak but it was still a great break!

Bye bye to the First Tooth

So I recently noticed that even though he hadn't yet lost any teeth, Micah had a tooth coming in and it was WAY behind the baby tooth.  I was a little worried that it was so far away that it wasn't going to make the baby tooth come out on its own so I made him an appointment and took him in to get it checked out.  

Per his usual way of doing things, Dr. Owens suggested that we remove the four teeth on bottom to allow the new incoming teeth to have a place to go.  He assured me that Micah's tongue would push the new tooth right into place.  He offers a sedation medication for the younger kids and suggested we try that for Micah.  We made the appointment to have the teeth pulled and went on our way.

Well, just a few days later, one of  Micah's baby teeth started getting really wiggly.  And then it got REALLY wiggly.  I made the comment that all it would take was one good yank and the tooth would come right out.  So he proceeded to go into the bathroom and give it one good yank.  And as I predicted, the tooth came right out!  He was so excited and of course looks super cute with his little gapped smile.  

A couple of weeks later, he pulled the next tooth.  So now he is only going to have to have two teeth pulled at the dentist.  And coincidentally, his appointment to have the teeth pulled has already come and gone and we had to reschedule- we had a snow day.  So we will be getting those pulled later in March.

Big Boy Bed

We converted Mason's bed into a toddler bed.  He did awesome and loves being able to get in and out on his own!